<p>Forensic science has gained
popularity in the last few decades. Many new techniques are being studied and
implemented. It includes a wide range of scientific disciplines, such as
entomology, physics and biology. An important improvement to forensic science
is the development of different DNA techniques which are implemented during an
investigation, making DNA a gold standard for forensics. Most of the time DNA is
mentioned it is in terms of human DNA, but there are microscopic organisms with
useful DNA. In the last decade, with the development of next-generation
sequencing (NGS), studies focusing on bacterial communities have been
published, but fungal communities have not been extensively studied.</p>
For this project, the potential of
fungi in forensic science was investigated through three different studies.
Human flora was looked at by NGS from thirty-seven human bodies with differing
post-mortem intervals (PMIs). The communities were analyzed statistically and
quantitatively, resulting in unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and
genera which were only present in certain PMIs, and in some which were present
through the entire PMI time scale. These attributes can help, not only to give
a better view on human mycoflora during decomposition, but they can also help
in determining fungal signatures during decomposition. These signatures can
help in a PMI determination. Moreover, swine carcasses – the model animals for
human forensic studies – were investigated as well to create a checklist of
fungal flora after five months of winter decomposition in the West Lafayette,
Indiana area. Furthermore, due to the increased importance of wildlife
forensics, a wildlife study was also conducted using four wildlife species
(mute swan, red tailed hawk, river otter, bobcat). The fungal flora from these
species were compared within species at the beginning of the study and at
skeletonization stage to look at any indicator fungal species and to create a
general checklist for wildlife studies in the West Lafayette, Indiana area for
future studies. Additionally, the fungal communities were compared across
species as well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/9037235 |
| Date | 02 August 2019 |
| Creators | Rebecca F Lakatos (7037951) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Examining_the_Potential_Use_of_Fungi_in_Forensic_Science/9037235 |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds